Rapid testing and tracing is a legitimate strategy to contain COVID-19 outbreaks. Other countries have had success with it and there is no reason Canada couldn’t achieve similar results. This page is a compilation of resources to help implement a testing and tracing program that works.
Test and Trace Implementation Guides
COVID-19 Contact Tracing Playbook (Resolve to Save Lives) – This playbook aims to provide clear and actionable technical guidance and tools for U.S. health departments to rapidly set up and implement contact tracing to support COVID-19 containment.
COVID-19 Community Tracing Collaborative resources (Mass.gov) – Materials provided by Massachusetts government and Partners In Health for entities interested in creating contact tracing organizations.
Contact Tracing Training
Johns Hopkins: How To Do Contact Tracing – Free, five-hour course available online through Coursera.
Introductory online course for entry-level COVID-19 contact tracers (ASTHO) – Recommended by U.S. CDC for use by health agencies in rapid training of new contact tracers.
COVID-19 Contact Tracing Training: Guidance, Resources, and Training Plan (U.S. CDC)
UH EPI Corps Contact Tracer Certificate Program – Training for students, faculty and staff of the University of Houston.
Community-Based Workforce Principles for Contact Tracing (HealthBegins) – Shaping contact tracing around “disproportionately impacted and minoritized communities.”
Contact Tracing Technology Resources
Understanding Digital Contact Tracing: Limitations, Implications and Recommendations (U.S. Digital Response) – Article on the limited role that can be played by digital contact tracing in a broader effort to contain the coronavirus.
The Best Contact Tracing Tech Resources (#TestAndTrace)
Covid Tracing Tracker (MIT Technology Review) – Database of automated contact tracing efforts around the world.
Digital Smartphone Tracking for COVID-19 (JAMA Network) – Overview of digital contact tracing strategies.
How to Get People to Use Contact Tracing Apps (Harvard Business Review) – “To be effective, apps need to be nearly ubiquitous. They are characterized by strong network effects, meaning that their value to any user depends on how many other people download the app and use it regularly.”
Contact Tracing Staffing Calculators
Contact Tracing Staffing Calculator (Prevent Epidemics) – The excel calculator helps estimate staff resources needed for scaling up contact tracing.
Contact Tracing Workforce Estimator: County, State & National (The George Washington University)
Other (Data, Projections, & Calculations)
The COVID Tracking Project – Volunteer organization launched by The Atlantic to compile and publish data related to the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S.
Worldometer: Coronavirus – Global data on coronavirus testing and cases.
Covid Act Now – Coronavirus data analysis and projections from a multidisciplinary team working in partnership with Georgetown University Center for Global Health Science and Security, Stanford University Clinical Excellence Research Center and Grand Rounds.
TRACE (The Brookings Institution, Washington University in St. Louis) – A “policy laboratory” to assist in the design of effective containment policies using testing and contact tracing.
CV19 Lab Testing Dashboard (AEI) – Uses testing data to measure infection risk in communities.
Rt COVID-19 – Real-time updates on every state’s Rt values, which measure how fast the virus is spreading.
The Covid-19 Tracker (STAT) – Dashboard with real-time data drawn from more than 15 sources.
Tracing COVID-19 in the United States (Resolve to Save Lives) – Review of state-level data dashboards for all 50 states and District of Columbia.
Privacy Issues for Contact Tracing
Ethical practice in isolation, quarantine & contact tracing (AMA) – Guidance from the AMA Code of Medical Ethics on balancing confidentiality and privacy versus public health in efforts to contain COVID-19.
Covid-19 contact tracing: efficacy and privacy (EPFL) – Assessing the risk trade-off between privacy and efficacy that the use of contact-tracing apps entails.
Unified research on protecting privacy in contact tracing and exposure notification
Expert Plans
A National Plan to Enable Comprehensive COVID-19 Case Finding and Contact Tracing in the US (Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, ASTHO) – Calls for “new national initiative that combines a massive expansion of rapid diagnostic tests in every community with an unprecedented growth in a public health workforce and adoption of new technologies dedicated to case identification and contact tracing in each state.”
Coronavirus: How to Do Testing and Contact Tracing (Tomas Pueyo) – Explains how countries that have been successful containing COVID-19 tend to focus on testing and tracing.
Box It In: Rapid Public Action Can Box in COVID-19 and Reopen Society (Resolve to Save Lives) – Explanation of essential actions required to emerge safely from sheltering in place authored by organization led by former CDC Director Tom Frieden.
COVID-19 Strategic Testing Plan (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services) – Congressionally mandated report on Trump administration’s approach to coronavirus testing.
Biden campaign’s COVID-19 testing proposal – Coronavirus testing plan created by Vice President Joe Biden and Biden for President Public Health Advisory Committee.
Contact tracing for COVID-19: New considerations for its practical application (McKinsey & Company) – Explainer on contact tracing, including limitations.
People Over Politics: Policy Recommendations for the Next Federal Relief Package (United States of Care) – Released in July 2020. Priorities include $75 billion in federal funding for contact tracing, testing and isolation.
National COVID-19 Testing & Tracing Action Plan (The Rockefeller Foundation) – Updated in July 2020. Calls for ramping up capacity by October to perform 5 million diagnostic tests and 25 million screening tests per week.
Studies and Academic Research
A National Plan to Enable Comprehensive COVID-19 Case Finding and Contact Tracing in the US (Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, ASTHO) – Calls for “new national initiative that combines a massive expansion of rapid diagnostic tests in every community with an unprecedented growth in a public health workforce and adoption of new technologies dedicated to case identification and contact tracing in each state.”
Coronavirus: How to Do Testing and Contact Tracing (Tomas Pueyo) – Explains how countries that have been successful containing COVID-19 tend to focus on testing and tracing.
Box It In: Rapid Public Action Can Box in COVID-19 and Reopen Society (Resolve to Save Lives) – Explanation of essential actions required to emerge safely from sheltering in place authored by organization led by former CDC Director Tom Frieden.
COVID-19 Strategic Testing Plan (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services) – Congressionally mandated report on Trump administration’s approach to coronavirus testing.
Biden campaign’s COVID-19 testing proposal – Coronavirus testing plan created by Vice President Joe Biden and Biden for President Public Health Advisory Committee.
Contact tracing for COVID-19: New considerations for its practical application (McKinsey & Company) – Explainer on contact tracing, including limitations.
People Over Politics: Policy Recommendations for the Next Federal Relief Package (United States of Care) – Released in July 2020. Priorities include $75 billion in federal funding for contact tracing, testing and isolation.
National COVID-19 Testing & Tracing Action Plan (The Rockefeller Foundation) – Updated in July 2020. Calls for ramping up capacity by October to perform 5 million diagnostic tests and 25 million screening tests per week.
International Contact Tracing Plans
- Australia
- TestandTrace.com (USA)
- RapidTest.org
